LOR Question To Gain II

[LordH]

Hi there, quick question on LOR

So I have 3 faculty letters and a personal letter from my employer from a medical setting. However, my PI has been incredibly busy and even though it's been 1.5 months, he still hasn't managed to send his letter over.

SO my question is do you think it's wise to meet school minimums for now and not designate my PI letter until I am sure to have it? Of course this won't apply to schools that strongly recommend research letters, but for those that don't, is this a wise decision? Depending on how fast my PI writes the letter, it will either be reviewed pre-II or post-II, right? Thanks!

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[desiredmembername123]

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[LordH]

Thanks for the reply, Gonnif. Research hasn't been a large part of my application but I've done quite a bit of research with him for 1.5 yrs (no significant results though...)

And quite honestly, it is really hard to say how strong my letters are going to be. I don't think any of them will hurt me because I spoke to each writer and they were very receptive of writing a letter. They are all very strong writers in general, but even I am curious as to how personal they were about me.

I guess my predicament is sacrificing being complete w/ late PI letter vs. waiting for the letter while being incomplete and being reviewed later in the cycle. The letter may be as late as August. When would it be time to move fwd without the PI letter?

Do you think meeting only the minimum LoR requirements can hurt an applicant (e.g. school accepts 3-6 letters and I only submit 3) even if letters are strong?

Thanks again for your input

 

[gyngyn]

We prefer the minimum.